Commentary: Eco-gardening perspectives

By Karen Pierson and Jan Brink

Sunday

Jul 29, 2018 at 6:01 AM

Two days before the British-American alliance of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May, 14 Cape-Cod-based gardeners, mostly master gardeners, arrived in London for an experts’ tour of iconic English gardens.

Our tour group leader was Harwich Master Gardener Sharon Oudemool, who is behind Harwich’s goal to become the second Massachusetts town to be registered as a National Wildlife Federation Community Wildlife Habitat.

Many on the tour heard inspiring British messages about eco-gardening that can help Cape Cod waterways, learning time-tested reasons to change practices one garden or yard at a time.

Scorning chemicals (including fertilizer), minimizing resource use by composting and recycling, rethinking lawns, diversifying plantings, encouraging beneficial insects, and being water-wise underscored each of the 16 gardens we saw over nine days.

The day of The Wedding, we toured the RHS Wisley display gardens, one of several U.K. properties testing scientific and practical improvements. Front and center was an experimental plot showcasing alternatives to grass lawns.

The lawn at Prince Charles’ Highgrove estate, purchased in 1980 as a blank canvas to test organic approaches to land management, was a gardener’s dream – just with different standards. Although neither cameras nor cellphones were allowed, photos would have shown moss, basal dandelion foliage, random weeds and sparse grass.

Only rainwater irrigates. Fallen trees become fencing, columns, snags for nesting birds, fern-planters in The Stumpery, and a tree-house for young princes. Reed beds filter all wastewater, solar panels heat. Beyond the walled gardens within view of every window is a recreated “lost habitat” – meadows of 30 different native plant species where dandelions danced fearlessly.

We saw “lawn meadows” in most garden estates, unmowed around trees, including the grand gardens of Kew, Bowood and Stourhead. Sometimes a shape – triangle, crescent – was unmowed. Mulch was rare, reflecting recent U.S. eco-designers’ advice – use layers of plants, not imported carbon-rich bark, to shield soil from the light weed seed “banks” need to grow.

The exquisite borders of Sissinghurst, Hidcote, and Barnsley used foliage like flowers, multi-layered like natural plant communities, throbbing with insects and birds.

Renowned Great Dixter head gardener Fergus Garrett described designer Christopher Lloyd’s philosophy as “excellence not perfection,” illustrating what happened when they stopped mowing the front lawn.

New England universities guiding master gardeners ask us to teach sustainability; likewise, Old England gardeners demonstrate time-tested practices less harmful to waters. They know to feed the soil not the plants.

The lessons we took home are mantras that should resonate with Cape Codders — we must balance landscape, gardens and fragile waters.

Karen Pierson is a UConn Advanced Master Gardener and Orleans Pond Coalition secretary. Jan Brink, former Nauset Garden Club president, is environmentally certified by the Mass. Garden Club Federation. More info at orleanspondcoalition.org. Water Water Everywhere is a monthly contribution of the OPC.